Bill would strengthen law against 'bath salts'

Thursday

Nov 15, 2012 at 12:01 AMNov 15, 2012 at 11:31 AM

The people who make and sell deadly synthetic drugs are smart. Ohio officials hope they're just a little bit smarter. Attorney General Mike DeWine and other state leaders said yesterday they are going to turn up the heat on synthetic drugs that one physician described as turning users into "combative, out-of-control, fairly psychotic people."

Alan Johnson, The Columbus Dispatch

The people who make and sell deadly synthetic drugs are smart. Ohio officials hope they're just a little bit smarter.

Attorney General Mike DeWine and other state leaders said yesterday they are going to turn up the heat on synthetic drugs that one physician described as turning users into "combative, out-of-control, fairly psychotic people."

The drugs, with names like Ninja, Bizaro, OMG, Vanilla Sky and Ivory Wave, are sold in colorful packages that appeal to young people, their primary market. Sold as "bath salts" or "herbal incense," they are technically labeled not for human consumption, but customers know differently.

The drugs produce a high that has the effect of methamphetamines with the kick of a hallucinogen.

DeWine said such drugs, which are widely available at "head" shops, carryouts and gas stations, are "dangerous and deadly" no matter what they're called.

He testified yesterday at a legislative hearing on House Bill 334, which would expand the reach of law enforcement to arrest manufacturers, sellers and users of the drugs. Ohio has had a synthetic-drug law on the books since last year, but chemists who make the drug compounds have found ways around it by simply tweaking the chemical compound to make it slightly different - and legal.

The new proposal would make the base compounds illegal, regardless of chemical modifications.

"These people are vicious marketers who are killing people," DeWine said at a news conference at his office. "And we are not going to put up with it anymore."

Dr. Dennis Mann of Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton said the hospital began seeing an increase in patients using bath salts and other synthetic drugs about two years ago. He said sometimes the hospital emergency room would be inundated with "combative, out-of-control, fairly psychotic people" who posed a danger to emergency medical technicians and hospital personnel.

"We in the medical community are looking for some help," Mann said.

The new law would make sale or possession of the drug, depending on the amount, a fourth-degree felony, punishable by a maximum prison sentence of 18 months and a $10,000 fine.

DeWine said if the bill passes and is signed by Gov. John Kasich as an emergency measure as backers hope, he will immediately put agents from the Bureau of Criminal Investigation and special prosecutors to work to pursue violators.